GAA: Provincial Ladies’ league scrapped

February 14, 2017

The AGM for the Britain Ladies GAA board took place recently, and a number of new initiatives and rules were announced. Following on the debut of an inter-county league that was trialled last year, it was decided that there would instead just be a provincial junior inter-county championship to be run this year instead.

Due to the timing of last year’s league, and the journeys some teams had to take, there were quite a few uncompetitive matches over the course of the games that took place over the period of a few months last year.

Scotland struggled to make the games, and are not competing in this year’s championship. London and Lancashire, who made it into the All-Ireland Junior Championship proper, will be joined by Warwickshire and Glo-Herts.

The first round of competitions will take place on May the 6th, with the further two rounds falling on the 20th of May and 3rd of June. The four teams will then contest two finals on the 17th of June to encourage more meaningful participation for all counties involved.

In other news, registration has gone up by £5 per fully registered member, and the board is anticipating funding of £5,000 from Croke Park as part of a development initiative. The provincial board is also looking forward to increased involvement and support from the men’s provincial council, and are also expecting significant funding, if not as much as from Croke Park, to come from the men’s board.

The development plan also sees the ladies board put more emphasis on coaching and training youths here, with paid CDAs (coaching development officers) to be recruited across Britain. Mouth guards must also be worn by all players.